1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal and method of inserting symbols thereof. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for supporting a symbol input.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a communication terminal, and more particularly, a mobile communication terminal supports a messaging service for transmitting/receiving a message.
For the messaging service, a mobile communication terminal is provided with functions for performing a task for creating a message, a task for transmitting a message, a task for receiving a message and a task for managing the a received message.
Meanwhile, the mobile communication terminal is further provided with various functions enabling a user to input characters, numbers and symbols using keys provided to the mobile communication terminal such as a schedule management, a phone number storage, etc. as well as the above-explained functions for the messaging service.
Yet, in a related art, a user has many difficulties in inputting the characters, numbers and symbols to the mobile communication terminal. Specifically, it is inconvenient for a user to input the symbols as follows.
First of all, in order to input symbols, while inputting characters, a user needs to switch a mode from a character input mode to a symbol input mode. The user seeks a symbol to be inputted from a symbol set provided in the symbol input mode and then inputs the sought symbol. Hence, it is inconvenient for the user to go through the complicated processes.
Secondly, most of symbols are not frequently used for a character input. In particular, a user uses several symbols within a symbol set provided in a symbol input mode. Considering the number of symbols practically used by a user, a mobile communication terminal provides too many symbols. So, a user has to search a specific symbol to be inputted from the entire symbols provided by the mobile communication terminal. Hence, it takes too much time to input a corresponding symbol.
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a symbol input according to a related art, in which a task for creating a text message is shown for example.
Referring to FIG. 1, a user creates a message using characters in a character input mode for an input of a message content of a mobile communication terminal. In this case, the mobile communication terminal displays a content ‘Good morning’ of the message that is being created via a display means (e.g., LCD).
Meanwhile, if the user selects a switching to a symbol input mode for a symbol input via a menu, i.e., if a user selects “4. symbol” from a menu including several items (1. number, 2. small letter, 3. capital letter, 4. symbol, . . . ), the mobile communication terminal is switched to the symbol input mode from the character input mode. And, the mobile communication terminal displays a previously stored symbol set via the display means.
If the user selects a symbol from the symbol set, the mobile communication terminal inserts the selected symbol in the content of the message that is being created. The mobile communication terminal then displays the content (Good morning!) of the message according to a corresponding result via the display means.
Thus, in the related art, there exits inconvenience that the input mode should be entered to use a symbol in the process of creating the content of the message with characters.
The same inconvenience results from the functions of schedule management, phonebook storage and the like as well as the creation off the message. Namely, in case of using a symbol while a character is inputted to register a schedule or to store a phone number, the input mode should be entered.
Moreover, after the symbol input mode has been entered, there still exists another inconvenience that specific symbols should be searched one by one from the symbol set provided by the mobile communication terminal.